Jews ordered to register in east Ukraine

Jews
in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk where pro-Russian militants
have taken over government buildings were told they have to "register"
with the Ukrainians who are trying to make the city become part of
Russia, according to Ukrainian and Israeli media.

Jews emerging
from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city's
Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee
"or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their
assets confiscated," reported Ynet News, Israel's largest news website.

Donetsk
is the site of an "anti-terrorist" operation by the Ukraine government,
which has moved military columns into the region to force out militants
who are demanding a referendum be held on joining Russia. The news was
carried first by the Ukraine's Donbass news agency.

The leaflets
bore the name of Denis Pushilin, who identified himself as chairman of
"Donetsk's temporary government," and were distributed near the Donetsk
synagogue and other areas, according to the reports.

Pushilin
acknowledged that fliers were distributed under his organization's name
in Donetsk but denied any connection to them, Ynet reported in Hebrew.

Emanuel Shechter, in Israel, told Ynet his friends in Donetsk sent him a copy of the leaflet through social media.

"They
told me that masked men were waiting for Jewish people after the
Passover eve prayer, handed them the flier and told them to obey its
instructions," he said.

The leaflet begins, "Dear Ukraine citizens
of Jewish nationality," and states that all people of Jewish descent
over 16 years old must report to the Commissioner for Nationalities in
the Donetsk Regional Administration building and "register."

It
says the reason is because the leaders of the Jewish community of
Ukraine supported Bendery Junta, a reference to Stepan Bandera, the
leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement that fought for Ukrainian
independence at the end of World War II, "and oppose the pro-Slavic
People's Republic of Donetsk," a name adopted by the militant
leadership.

The leaflet then described which documents Jews should
provide: "ID and passport are required to register your Jewish
religion, religious documents of family members, as well as documents
establishing the rights to all real estate property that belongs to you,
including vehicles."

Consequences for non-compliance will result
in citizenship being revoked "and you will be forced outside the country
with a confiscation of property." A registration fee of $50 would be
required, it said.

Olga Reznikova, 32, a Jewish resident of
Donetsk, told Ynet she never experienced anti-Semitism in the city until
she saw this leaflet.

"We don't know if these notifications were
distributed by pro-Russian activists or someone else, but it's serious
that it exists," she said. "The text reminds of the fascists in 1941,"
she said referring to the Nazis who occupied Ukraine during World War
II.

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of
America, the oldest pro-Israel group in the USA, said the leaflets
should be seen in the context of a rising tide of anti-Semitism across
Europe and the world, and that it should prompt a strong response from
the White House.

"This is a frightening new development in the anti-Jewish movement that is gaining traction around the world," Klein said.

Secretary of State John Kerry called the incident "grotesque."

"It
is beyond unacceptable," Kerry said. "And any of the people who engage
in these kinds of activities — from whatever party or whatever ideology
or whatever place they crawl out of — there is no place for that."

Kerry,
who participated in a conference on Ukraine with his counterparts from
Russia, Ukraine and the European Union, told reporters all parties
condemned anti-Semitism and all religious intolerance.

Michael
Salberg, director of the international affairs at the New York
City-based Anti-Defamation League, said it's unclear whether the
leaflets were issued by the pro-Russian leadership or a splinter group
operating within the pro-Russian camp.

But the Russian side has
used the specter of anti-Semitism in a cynical manner since
anti-government protests began in Kiev that resulted in the ousting of
Ukraine's pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych. Russia and its
allies in Ukraine issued multiple stories about the the threat posed to
Jews by Ukraine's new pro-Western government in Kiev, Salberg said.

Those
stories were based in part on ultra-nationalists who joined the Maidan
protests, and the inclusion of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda party in
Ukraine's new interim government. But the threat turned out to be false,
he said.

Svoboda's leadership needs to be monitored, but so far
it has refrained from anti-Semitic statements since joining the
government, he said. And the prevalence of anti-Semitic acts has not
changed since before the Maidan protests, according to the ADL and the
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, which monitors human rights in
Ukraine.

Distributing such leaflets is a recruitment tool to
appeal to the xenophobic fears of the majority, "to enlist them to your
cause and focus on a common enemy, the Jews," Salberg said.

And by targeting Donetsk's Jews, they also send a message to all the region's residents, Salberg said.

"The
message is a message to all the people that is we're going to exert our
power over you," he said. "Jews are the default scapegoat throughout
history for despots to send a message to the general public: Don't step
out of line."

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